Best Season to cut Firewood Trees

Generally speaking, the best time to cut down a tree for firewood is as soon as possible. The quicker the tree is cut, split and stacked, the quicker is will be fully seasoned and ready for burning.

The common thought about the "sap being down" is not worth the effort of even considering. There is moisture in the wood in all seasons. The moisture difference from month to month is negligible when considering when to cut your firewood. The more important questions should be when do you plan on burning the wood or when do you have the best access to transport the tree once it's cut? The biggest reason that loggers harvest trees heavily in the winter is because the ground is frozen and they can run their heavy equipment with much less risk of it getting stuck.

If you are pruning trees, I don't recommend doing it during the late winter/early spring as that is a time of year when the sap will run out of wounds and potentially attract damaging pests that could attack the tree. But for removals, any time of the year is fine.

I hope this helps!

-Firewood Matt

Comments for Best Season to cut Firewood Trees

I agree it doesn't really matter when the tree is cut, however seasoning is critical for hot, safe stove or open fireplace wood. First, for a wood stove consider cutting, spliting, stacking and covering quickly to avoid "crud" on the wood that will find it's way into your house. I have a large stove in the unfinished portion of my basemant, therefore I can stack up to a few coards of wood in close proximity to my stove.............bone-dry wood burns cleaner [less chimny cleaning] and a great deal hotter. I find I use less wood this way. As for an ornamental fireplace in your home, forget it ! you will be tripping your thermostat, thus burning more gas. Inserts are a great idea if you must see the fire...........Well, that's all I have on the subject, Regards to all.........Grayman, the treeman